


Another Chance: Southern Conclave

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Another Chance (Pern/DCU fusion) [10]
Category: DCU (Comics), Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-07
Updated: 2013-10-07
Packaged: 2017-12-28 18:45:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/995258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Leaders of the South come together to decide on matters face to face... to hopefully head off history's worst sting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Chance: Southern Conclave

_year 18/year 11_

Dinah leaned on the rail of the _Southern Cross_ , her face tipped into the wind, as Jim Tillek started her in towards the Boca River mouth and the pier hammered into place there. Admiral Benden's old stake hadn't been set up with docking -- why would he have, when they'd all thought they would have the sleds for decades? -- but when they'd started plotting this excursion and reunion, almost a year after the fever and a year ago now, that had been one of the first decisions made. 

Boca was almost as inconvenient as possible in the South for her, personally, but it was well-situated for Caesar and Gyorgy to reach, and not that difficult for Drake. The far western leaders -- Jays, she had to get their names placed to faces and not writing-style or voice before the meetings started -- were coming by sea just like she and Slade and Jim and Theo. Most of the leaders of the major trades were coming in, too, and she wasn't sure she'd ever even _met_ some of them. At least, some of them were coming by sea, others had started out longer ago, riding the finally-finished system of roads and Fall shelters. Testing them out, she thought, and was happy with it. Some few with dragonrider kin might well come a-dragonback, she certainly could have if she'd wanted, but she still hated imposing on them. 

Hope nuzzled her shoulder, trilling soft and gentle, and Dinah yanked her thoughts back to the present moment, watching the _Cross_ get ever closer to the dock. She glanced away from the dock to find her son. There, Duncan was amidship with Nerys Force-Tillek, both of them intently absorbed in some game... from the way his bronze Vili and her blue Triton were soaring, they were trying to spot either fish, dolphins, or some of the sea-wherries, and the fire-lizards were helping. 

Major landing on her shoulder was enough to make her turn, pushing her hat to hang behind her shoulders and lift her face for a kiss from her husband. He half-chuckled into the kiss before smiling down at her.

"Can't sneak up on you, wife," he rumbled to her, before pulling her to stand in front of him, letting them both watch the children and the docking.

"Not when Major's willing to tell me," she agreed, shifting her hat around so that she could lean back against his chest, her fingers wrapping gently over one of his hands. On the port side of the ship, a sailor tossed her fenders over the side, while Jim furled her sails in tighter, slowing her as she came within the last few yards of the dock. On it, waiting hands threw mooring lines up, and then, almost before Dinah knew it, the ship was still and a gangway was in place for them to disembark. 

Theo Force-Tillek must have climbed the ladder at the end of the dock while she was distracted, Dinah realized, because she was standing at the other end of the gangway, water pouring off her wetsuit. "Slowpoke," she called across the ship to Jim, "Dart had me in here ages ago." 

"Dart," Jim pointed out as the anchor chain ran down, "doesn't have to worry about hitting anything." 

"Well if you'd just listen to him, you'd not hit a thing, would you?" Theo taunted back cheerfully.

Slade tucked his lips against Dinah's hair to hide the slight smile that exchange caused. "They've made a good pair," he murmured to her. For all that Paradise was their nearest neighbor, they rarely saw Jim or his wife, as much as the ship was out to sea on those rare times one of them made the trip personally to receive or send goods.

Nerys was quick to duck ahead of others to get to her mother. "Next time I wanna swim in, ma!"

Theo picked her up, swinging her into the air. "Well then, say so quicker next time, little love. Dart won't mind a bit."

"Dart never minds!" Nerys said, laughing, and then she was down on the dock, staring ahead into the... Dinah's head cocked, just a little. No, it wasn't a stake, not anymore. It wasn't a trade-center, either. They'd gotten leave from Benden to take it over and rebuild it as a meeting place, so right now it bustled with people and activity. That still wasn't telling her what they should call it, but they could decide that as a group soon enough. Ahead into the group of people, at least. 

"Truth there," Theo agreed, wrapping her arm around her daughter as they headed up off the dock. 

"Ma?" 

"Yes, D?" Dinah looked down at her son beside her -- not that she'd be looking down at him for much longer, he was already within a quarter-meter of her -- and smiled, ruffling her hand along his hair. 

"Can I go with Nerys?" 

"Sure, D. Send Vili to find us, or we'll see you at dinner." 

"Will." Her son gave a quick smile and went to join Nerys. There were other children at Omaha, and Roy took Duncan to the Dragon Caves often… but Nerys was new and different, only encountered a few times before this trip.

"This trip has been good for him," Slade murmured, keeping her close… and a wary eye on the crowds. Too many people he did not know, not cleared by he or his wife in advance. While there hadn't been another incident like Kimmer, there had been a few other unpleasant incidents reported as population pressure brought out the worse in people. He wasn't worried about his son, as the two-legged tunnel snakes were more apt to prey on those that could benefit them, but crowds made him wary for his wife and himself.

"Sure has," Dinah agreed, watching the crowd nearly as much as Slade was. There were people she knew, some of her students that had become full agronomists in their own right on stakes like Sadrid and Roma, some of the sailors that came down from Paradise to the small port they'd built at the closest point, others she only remembered from their Landing days or visiting their stakes. 

One of the Galliani girls -- Lucia? Elena? -- came jogging towards them. "Dinah! Slade! We've quarters set up for you, if you'll just follow me? Was the trip good?" 

"Steady as always, under Jim's hand," Slade said. "Your father well, Elena? Haven't seen him since I made the trip out last fall," he added, letting Dinah settle in under his arm now that they had a guide.

"He's fine -- still trying to get a donkey-jack to adapt to the boron," she said with a quick roll of her eyes, "which's giving him fits, but I think he and Ma've maybe stopped competing with the Hanrahans? Though he's still swearing about Terry going north." She glanced at them both, grinned, and picked up with some more of the central-stakes gossip. 

Dinah listened, tucking details away in her mind while they went to get settled. 

+++++

"None of you are going to insist I bang what passes for a gavel, are you?" Jim Tillek asked as people settled in from the meet and greet of the initial arrival.

"Jim, there isn't a person in this room who is not imminently aware of -- and thankful for -- all the admin work you have shouldered since this crisis began," Jan Regan said steadily. She then eyed both ranchers, a quiet but firm set to her mouth informing them both to not volunteer themselves. She scanned the room, trying to decide who should moderate this meeting of tradesmen, technicians, and stakeholders.

"Stone, as you represent the mechanical and technical side of Southern life, giving to all the stakes, not just the one you live in, I suggest you moderate," Jan finally suggested.

Vic gave her a long look, but he moved towards a chair, breathing out a slow sigh. "Have to say you make sense, Jan, so all right -- unless one of you others is just desperate to." 

"Not a chance," Wade Lorenzo said, leaning back against an open space of wall. "Though, Dinah?" 

"No thank you," Dinah said, shaking her head as she flicked her hand sideways. "I run enough meetings." 

"Good choice," Caesar said, ratifying it, almost daring Gyorgy with his eyes to defy the fairness of it. His pseudo-rival ignored him and pointedly took a seat.

Slade settled back; he was here for the building side of engineering while Drake was the raw material side. Technically Vic belonged under their aegis, as technical services, but there was a slight difference between the repair and output sides of things.

"Alright, then… Now that we had dinner last night and breakfast this morning to actually put faces with names and voices, we have a few points of order to consider that have been bandied about in different parts of the continent," Vic said once Jim passed him the cards with various stake and trade concerns on them. "Since I just got the hot seat… I'm just going to take these cards in the order they're in my hand here." He looked around for objections to that.

"Sounds wise as anything," Nokosi Jones said, taking a seat of his own. 

There were nods all around, and within a few more moments they were settled into a ring. It was Felicia Grant that looked to him first, arching one brow a little.

Vic looked down at the card, trying to get his thoughts together. He ran a shop, not people. For him, people came with the tools at the shop, and that was a simple thing. These people? Were names, big ones, holding out in the South to keep food for the whole planet going.

"Seems first concern that's been raised… Ierne and Drake's both brought this one up… is that we don't have many general teachers to help keep education standardized for the younger kids coming up," Vic offered.

"If I may?" Leonid voiced when Vic looked out at all of them.

"Sure," Vic said, wondering what his long-time buddy from the Dragon Caves had to say on this one. 

"We all teach the children, da? But if it is to insure we teach them all they need to know, it is not so much teachers for the stakes as it is someone to teach us to teach. To set courses, plans… with flexibility, because some do not learn as easy as others." His eyes were soft with understanding; his son was very physical and not as capable in learning as others his age. "The riders, they learned this when we were swimming in baby dragons."

Felicia had nodded along with Leonid's words, and once she was certain he was done, she spoke up. "You're right, Leonid. I spoke to Helena by fire-lizard a few times, while she was over with you, and... it's not easy. Add the fact that all of us teachers are still feuding over what needs to be taught and what doesn't, and we set ourselves up for something of a perfect storm. Which isn't fair to any of you or to the kids." 

"Then… I propose that we hammer out what we, as stakeholders and tradespeople, think are the fundamental building blocks," Abiaka Powell said firmly. "Specialized knowledge not readily adapted to any and all trades must wait for specialized training. The basics must be learned young… and all young should have the same basics."

Laura Temple hesitantly put her hand out to get attention. "Committee rule is often not the best for getting standards. May I volunteer to put together a basic, to me, curriculum idea, give each of you a copy, then collate the agreed upon changes? Because if two different people feel that something is not needed or is… that would prompt me to change my mind. I think it would speed up these meetings, since we have a limited window before the chance of a Fall here. I think I know what our early-childcare providers are already providing fairly well..."

"Anyone have a serious problem with that?" Vic asked, looking from face to face among the men and women seated around him. Even Felicia looked like she approved -- no, she looked downright relieved -- and he smiled at Laura, quick and grateful. "That sounds real good to me, Laura, and it looks like it works for everyone else. Jake, you got terminals and printers set up, right?" 

"Yeah," Jake nodded, pushing a hand through his hair. "Wound up putting them out in the admiral's old garage, but they're safe and running."

"I will work on that first thing after this meeting, then," Laura promised, settling back.

Vic nodded, relieved, and put that card down, turning the next one up. "In the same vein as the last one, it seems that nearly everyone of the stakes and the Weyr have asked about getting…" he checked all the cards that were clipped together. "People to make clothes, shoes, so forth and so on." He looked around at all of them. "I thought we were letting the northern people make that stuff, send it back…"

"Not efficient," Per said. "Yes, it is nice to return with full holds so we are not corks on the sea, but we could just as easily fill the space with the shipping containers stacked within one another. If we are to have true autonomy, we need textiles, leather working, boot makers."

Abiaka Jones toyed with the end of one long black braid for a moment before he spoke. "Yes. Many times on old Earth, and between the core and perimeter FSP worlds, the regions or nations who produced raw materials were... poorly treated," Vic heard many long and ugly stories in those words, and gave himself a note to ask him later, "by those who refined the materials into finished products. I do not believe that would be deliberately done by _our_ Admin, at least in this generation, but we must plan not for ourselves but for our children and great-grandchildren as well.

"None of us wish heavy industry, I believe that was a large part of signing on to this colony in the first place, but... we must have our own skilled tradespeople for those things which make life more than unremitting toil." 

Nokosi looked at the other man, nodding the whole time he spoke, then glanced over at Laura. She was also agreeing fiercely, not blind to the history of either her ancestors on Earth, or the treatment of Iota.

"While various stakes will likely specialize over time, we need to have these basic skills accessible on our continent," she told them. "Or we will one day find ourselves paying dearly for the finished efforts of our own raw goods."

Vic saw it as Slade, too, nodded, quick and sharp. "Aye. Which brings up two questions. One, which trades do we _most_ need, and two, how do we convince contractors -- or charterers, some of them have skillsets, too -- that have already headed North into Fort to come back down here with us?"

Felicia Grant made an uneasy noise, and Vic said, "Yeah, Felicia?" 

"All that effort that the lot of us that worked on the Charter put into not bringing along capitalism or even mercantilism, into making sure that we wouldn't do that to each other... why do you sound so sure that we're just going to fall into the same old patterns?" 

Slade looked over at the younger woman, surprised that his wife's cynical streak had yet to rub off… and caught Vic's eye so he could be next to speak. "Felicia, I'd really be thankful if we didn't, but just as there's been murder, rape, and plain out physical violence now that we've been shoved into a threatened existence, it's sadly evident man doesn't have a better nature to appeal to. At least, not when the chips are down."

"That case at the Fort, with the man who never reported to a work force, but always was first in line for the communal handouts?" Riccardo brought up, waiting until others nodded. "That is why there will be at least a barter system. In a perfect communal system, everyone produces, according to their ability. So sharing the end results is natural. Those who cannot are those who need to be cared for by society anyway. Yet, in practice, there are too many who will get by solely on the works of others, leaving a gap between value given and value gained. So barter, at the very least, or trade of this for that, will be the only way people will feel comfortable, in the end."

Leonid shifted his weight, lifting a hand, and once Vic nodded his way, he breathed out a sigh. "Have done all I can, to make sure that people feel free to come for supplies, and most ensure that they return something -- be it hide, produce, worked wood, or metals -- to us. Perhaps that is because dragons live close?" 

He grinned at the chuckles that brought, the wry looks, "But I hear from Joel. Hear from you at Ierne, Seminole, that I am too far away, and it is true. Yet... no person, not even a group, can make all that is needed. So there must be trade, and... none wish their efforts to show no result. I am from old Russia. My people have tried, over and over again, to find better ways. I do not know an answer. I know I do not wish to see the greed of FSP here. I know that accomplishment is sometimes not enough reward, on its own. But I see trade returning, and you others who speak of old ills are also right." 

Dinah shifted in her seat… and almost flinched as that meant everyone looked her way. She controlled the only complete farm. She fed the entire world, though everyone had some fields under cover by now. "I will never deny a person the basic caloric content they need for survival," she said. "Even the laziest among our people will eat, if I have my say on it. But I cannot conscience giving to those who will not aid anything beyond the basic tools for survival, unless there is a true debilitation of the mind or body," she said. "Yet… my students, my teachers? They break their backs over those fields. I am the second largest user of numbweed behind the weyrs, at Omaha. And in honesty, we see little return for it. Some days… some days that rankles. Not from any of you… we have herd beasts, fish, wherries… all we could hope for in protein. But I only requisition what my stake needs in the way of finished goods, because I cannot support building a culture based on greed either. I just want one that does give fair value for things taken."

"I hear you there, Dinah," Drake said, his usually laughing eyes serious. "When we thought we could all just settle to a piece of independent land -- yeah, yeah, or sea, you fish-folk -- support ourselves and maybe produce a little extra, we could hope to be better than Earth ever was. 

"Now? Now we've gotta find a way that works." He shrugged, a wry look on his expressive face. "I'm no great economic thinker, I know sleds, mines, and geology, not that kind of thing, so I've got no brilliant ideas there -- and I know I'm sitting pretty, I can ask for damn near anything and as long as my mines are turning out materials, we'll get it. But I know a little history too, and we've _got_ to get manufacturing and processing down here before you lot suffer for it. So let's name off what we all make, and what we have to ship off to get back. Stake by stake, yeah?" 

"Good call, Drake… and we do appreciate you staying with us," Wade Lorenzo told him. "Sadrid was always intended to be a sea-side farm, raising tropical woods and fruit. Thanks to the shutters, we've got some young trees of the dwarf varieties going, but it will be years before we're producing what we need. Instead, Athpathis guided us into seaweed harvesting, and we work with some of the divers that way. Put us down for sea harvesting, not fishing." He wrinkled his nose in a teasing way at that.

Laura ran a hand through her braids, grinning a little. "We fish, everybody knows that." She nodded at Jan, smiling affectionately. "We've got some decent land for raising numbweed, and we do... but we could really use an expert on rendering oils and tannins out of what we haul in." 

Gyorgy, sitting next to her, shrugged a shoulder. "Sheep are good for more than eating," he said. "We send raw fleece North, except for what Jenna and our kids wash, card, and spin, but... I'd be willing to house anyone that wanted to come back South to take up that chore. And on top of that, by the time the fleece gets shipped North, they can't refine lanolin out of it. If they were here to wash and render it out as soon as they're sheared, it'd be higher quality and produce a lot more of it. Also, those that we do butcher -- is there anybody on this planet that knows making vellum and parchment?"

"What's that?" was Drake's helpful, and humorous, reply, earning a thrown tissue from Laura who laughed softly. 

"Adding those two things as skills to look for from the North," Vic said as he wrote them down.

"So, we found metals," Drake added. "Can give you some rocks pretty cheap too… and there are petroleum deposits, but I think we're all agreed that we don't want the refinery issues?"

"Aren't there some clean-use products we can get off those?" Laura asked him seriously.

"Needs research, I guess," he told her. "What we need? Everything. Granted, I get the food directly. But we don't have time to make furniture, clothes, pretty things that make a home… all of it." He looked over at Akiaba to pick up the round robin discussion.

"Both Seminole and Lochahatchee raise and catch just enough to support the population there," Akiaba said, speaking up at that invitation. "We produce bows, snares, hunting spears… and train people on various ways to live from the land. While Thread has made this more difficult, it is still our goal to give these skills to others."

"The challenge of it is mostly a matter of timing, and learning the tricks of the wild creatures to avoid death from above," Nokosi agreed. "We have all studied Thread itself, and how the planet reacts, to help make the skills we teach fit the lands we live in. We do not, though, get many students from the North."

"I've appreciated the students of mine you've taught," Dinah said, echoed by both ranchers.

"We like the food you send, all of you," Akiaba said with a laugh. "What we want? Students. Wood, in time, as we are quickly learning that the trees which survive are not… easily scaled for their limbs. Good leather and hides of beasts that are not native to the island or its nearer coasts."

"Speaking of hides," Caesar said, "I have a couple of people that know tanning, but they can't keep up with the output from slaughter demands from up North -- we need more experts in tanning, people that can make everything from that high-quality calf-hide to saddle-leather for our riders. Speaking of, _saddlers_ in addition to your cobblers. Right now, we're sending everything we can't work North as rawhide, and frankly, not that much of it's coming back. 

"My Diana's taken over the cheese-making, but there're probably more kinds she doesn't know how to make than any of us do know, or have hands for." 

Jim Tillek actually stood up to prowl the circle a bit, trying to word what needed to be said now. "Me? I just sail. I take things from place to place, and get by on whatever people give me in turn for that." He looked at each stake holder, each senior tradesperson. "We need hands, we need skills. A lot of knowledge went North, and sure as Thread burns, so did a lot of the raw labor force." He made sure they were all paying attention, then spoke again. "You can't just ask for people. Nothing like a broad recruitment at all. Not even for hands to work fields, leathers, fishing lines… because we made a mistake, people. We proved beyond a doubt we can survive… and they'll all think it's as easy as sitting up in the Fort by this point."

Dinah blinked in surprise as it was _Jake_ that suddenly spoke up into the tense, edged silence Jim's words brought. Vic was startled, too, and he was busy grinding his own teeth at how obvious the captain's truth was. 

"Good thing I've got all the old ship-by-ship manifests on who's got what skills then, isn't it? Have to get back home to search it, but I'll get you all lists of who you might want to contact," Jake promised. "By this point, might have to hope a kid's learned their trade, but. I'll get you the names if they're in the computers." 

"To rescue us from ourselves," Leonid said, "Sean might be willing to lend late-weyrlings so that you can negotiate in person with them -- not saying he _will_ , but..."

"But he loves our South," Slade murmured, nodding. "Think I'm one of the few of us in this room that's in the position of training students more than active production -- you know, other than of shutters for stakes and roofing materials." He grinned a wry, sharp smile at them all. "My students are doing damn well for themselves, too. But every six months we lose another solar panel, another axle breaks, we scrimp and save on plas and markers until I can barely see what they're designing. Alternative power sources, we need them and we need them badly. 

"I can think of a bunch. Water-wheels, windmills, Drake and I've built a few alcohol-burning engines to drive carts and harvesting equipment... but while I can build 'em, I sure can't run them all." 

"You wouldn't wake up from your next nap if you tried," his wife informed him, mostly sweetly. 

The room laughed, then smiled more as Slade leaned over to kiss his wife to placate her. "You're one to talk. I had to sneak that pony down here just to get you to quit walking your legs off on stake!" he reminded her, making Jim smile. He'd helped with that shenanigan.

"The kids," Rene said, once the levity died down. "It's to the children I would look for the right kind of souls to return south for labor. My wife has been kind and prolific to me, but knee-high boys are only so useful for picking grapes and olives alike," he told them. "Children who have grown up cramped in stone? Would choose south. May I suggest that we offer a thirty day trial to any laborers and tradesmen alike, with safe passage back north if they do not settle in here? Or do we make it clear that the trip south is one not to be made lightly, because going North again will depend on space upon the travelling ships?"

"Both good ideas," Per said, nodding at Rene. "Let people come... but give them fair warning that it's not going to be as easy to get back to Fort if they decide work down here isn't for them." 

"We have those who have not Impressed among the people of the Dragon Caves," Leonid said gently, "many are teens. We need many of them to support the dragons, but perhaps not all? If names and skills match what are needed elsewhere."

That brought a few nods and considering looks, and then Dinah spoke up. "I send huge quantities of raw grain and tubers north, every time a field comes to production, you all know that. I'm pretty good at basic drying and storage, but it would be easier if we _could_ get people to run mills on the Paradise and -- has anyone actually _named_ that river that runs into the Sea of Azov through the Eastern Barrier Range?" 

"Bitch to navigate," Per offered, having listened to those who had built river ships. "With its rapids, though…." He looked at Slade.

"My thinking too," the engineer told him. "We've got ideas on wind power for stakes where those are a better factor, but river waters churn out a lot of energy."

Vic spoke up. "Okay, so we're not in here all day long… everyone use the cards we gave you all to turn in what you offer, what you need, since some haven't spoke up yet. Jake, you will get a list of needed people. Leonid, we'll put a request through you for transport when we narrow down the list, if you'll warn Sean it's coming. Does that sound like a plan for all of you?" he offered, rather than let this meeting bog down in ways to improve what they had when the next topic in his hand applied to how to keep it going.

"Works for me," Riccardo said, and Jan and Sue nodded, Pol adding a quick nod as well. "So what're you in such a hurry to get to, Vic?" 

"Well…." Vic looked at Slade, Dinah, Jake, and Felicia. "There's some concern over how to handle inheritance matters, and codifying leadership within the stakes that have multiple families extending the claims. Bluntly, and I don't know who raised the issue, there's a worry over Omaha."

Dinah blinked and looked at Slade. "There's Duncan…"

"Who is known to be as empathic as his mother," Leonid reminded her. "If he goes to us at the dragons, who will keep Omaha safe in time?"

"It's a concern for all of us," Caesar said. "Those that have thrown in with me agree; we need a maximum size for stakes to reach, and we need procedures for when one stakeholder dies to how lands with no heirs are handled, among other concerns for general administration within stake boundaries."

"Such as when there are five children born after stakes reach size limit, and only one can inherit the main claim?" Laura asked with a raised eyebrow. "Or, as in the worry over Omaha, who inherits when no child remains?"

"Designated heirs," Slade said immediately. "Blood doesn't make family."

Nokosi Jones nodded at that. "Very true. Ties of legal adoption, perhaps, so that those heirs cannot be doubted by others?"

"Means we'd need a legist down here," Per said, tipping his head to the side a little. "Though that's a good thought anyway."

"I say that's a complicated enough can of worms to warrant its own meeting," Jim told them all. "We get a legist, and each Stake sets their own rules for how… and lodges them with the legist, who will offer opinions on methodology. Because autonomy means stakes make their own internal rules."

"True," Per said. "With our own lands having the dual issue of who inherits ship versus land holdings, as it will not always be the same person for us sailors," he added.

"As to stake size," Gyorgy began. "I too agree that we need to formalize a limit on how much land any one stake keeps or takes, even if we do not yet have the bodies to prove out to the formal boundaries of chartered, contracted, and merged stakes as they stand now. If we draw people from the north, who choose to make their stakes with the one who brings them here, how large can we be allowed to allow a stake to be?"

"Three day's easy ride by horse from center to border in any direction?" Dinah suggested. "That gives you roughly 130 klicks in any given direction as a base unit."

Rene and Nokosi glanced at each other and laughed, "Ierne has already divided itself. We absorbed Orkney when they left and spread it between the three main stakes. We don't have that much land to divide -- and are grateful of it! -- but it sounds a wise measurement for you mainlanders."

"I'd say we're almost pushing the boundary of that, counting from the edge of our winter pasturing to our summer grounds," Caesar said thoughtfully, "but it's not a bad rule. Though, if we take hints from Iota, grazing lands could be held in common trust and only the 'home ranch' considered the 'stake'. But for you at Omaha, Dinah, and you at Sadrid, Wade, wouldn't that be as much land as any one set of families could handle?" 

"I'd say it's more than enough for me," Wade said. "We're going to grow trees eventually, when the Weyrs can protect more than our dwarf varieties, but three days' ride is manageable."

Dinah nodded. "Three easy days on an easy ride is usually doable in an emergency with one of our rugged ethanol carts much sooner. Right now, I've only furrowed and proved about a days' ride out in any direction, but there will be need for more, as we multiply. I do say that our best students need to be encouraged, as resources allow, to make their own stakes, attract satellite stakeholders, and prove more ground. The roads were planned out to provide access to several places that were deemed very habitable for that reason."

"Definitely," came from Sue Havers, who flicked a smile at her. "We've already seen what can happen when we cling too tightly together. Letting the best talent have their heads to prove their own holdings is what we're supposed to be all about, right?" 

"Agreed," Laura told them both. "However, the roads… While we have, to this point maintained our ends and stretches, could you, Slade, find and recruit a crew to see to their maintenance? It just seems that the repairs I did in my area didn't hold up near as well as the ones I see here." She looked apologetic.

Slade chuckled. "I can see where that would be a good thing… work it in with the legal issues of boundaries, so each stake agrees, by formation, to house and feed the crew when they come through on inspection, and to provide needed materials if inspection warrants same?"

"Laying roads has been a specialized trade since... jays, before the Age of Religions, hasn't it?" Caesar said, and Gyorgy snorted. "Yes, and you'd know it. Sounds good to me, Slade." 

"Don't be so sore that we actually promised on the half-started ideas of your ancients," Caesar said in retort.

"Hell you -- " 

"Caesar. Gyorgy. Don't make me sic Theo on you," Jim said, and -- amazingly -- both men went quiet. 

Vic shook his head, then penciled in ideas on his note cards. "Alright, so each stake makes their own rules on inheritance, road things get worked in as part of the legalese, and we get Cabot to give up someone who's trained in land laws. Got it." He shuffled those card to the side, then read the last major issue. He looked up and out to Dinah. "Ma'am?"

Dinah swallowed hard, and Slade squeezed her hand in encouragement before she stood up to come to the center of the circle.

"I do appreciate the worry about Omaha's succession, but even if Duncan does Impress, I promise, I've got able heirs to choose from, depending on who stays with me," she said first, because that had startled her. "And, with time, it won't even be as taxing on the dragonriders to protect our uncovered acreage."

"What?" That was Wade, off Sadrid, and he sat up straight, totally focused on her. "What miracle've you worked this time, Dinah?!" 

Pol twitched as something in her expression twigged the back of his mind. _I can't make anything of his notes!_ seemed to echo, and his jaw dropped as Dinah straightened to answer.

"I did not work a miracle. I finally had a sane success in understanding a grief-mad man's notes," she said softly. "Calusa's grasses aren't anything special; it is the grubs, and I have managed to not only encourage them to propagate, but tested their ability to protect the ground from Thread." She looked around at each of them, including Felicia. "Yes, that is why I caught the damn stuff in the metal pans that one Fall. I had to test my theories," she told her assistant.

"What?" Laura, Rene, Abaika, Nokosi, and Wade asked in baffled unison, while Drake stared at her. 

"You," he said, blinking, "you really -- I'd almost forgotten that day. Have you told Ned?" 

Dinah shook her head. "Slade helped me. I didn't want to get hopes up before I could make the announcement. And Ned should know… but he's not here. We are. Rene, Wade… you want your arts to thrive but they have a dragon cost. These grubs mean that the plants are protected. Once there are enough of them, a factor that is not insignificant. Because, based on our tests, there have to be many of these grubs, all on different maturation rates, to avoid swarm and absence cycles, and it takes a lot of the little buggers to 'Thread-proof' a field. The dragons will be at the projected maximum capacity for defending both continents well before the grubs are protecting all the land as well."

"But it's a start!" Pol said. "You did it! You broke his notes and figured it out!"

"Could one of you please explain?" Laura said, looking from Pol to Drake to Dinah baffledly. "There's a bug that can do something about Thread? And who?" 

Dinah took a deep breath. "Ted Tubberman, who was the only other true botanist after Fall… went off and used the fact he'd been shunned by Admin -- for good reasons -- to experiment with Eridani equations as well. However, Admin took shunning way too far when they told the response teams to avoid his stake during next Fall, given that young Peter and Mary still lived there." She let the murmurs die down. "In the end, it worked in our favor. Because if Thread had not fallen there, we never would have realized that the grass was still green, lush, and healthy." She waited for that to sink in. "I was denied the right to make contact, but when other experiments at Calusa caused Tubberman's death, I acquired notes, samples, and have steadily worked on them. He crossed grubs of one native species, and one non-native species with something that causes them to secrete a phosphine protective layer."

Vic blinked. "I know the fire-lizards and the dragons use phosphorus to burn it, but I thought it was the flame. There's something in the phosphorus itself that acts against the stuff?"

"Seems to be," Slade said, "from everything we've seen. Seems to cause some kind of an adverse and destabilizing reaction in those devastating proteins of its." 

"Well bless the bugs, then," Laura said. "What do we do to spread them, then? And... what do the mature forms eat? Are they going to be dangerous to your crops or trees -- or worse yet, the numbweed and redwort?" 

Dinah had to almost smile at that, because it had been her fear all along once she identified the grubs as why the grass survived. "Actually, they are decomposers, scavengers, and will, in the end, make any field or lot infested with them healthier."

"Glows?" Pol asked, incredulous at the idea, but… she'd told him way back then it looked like a mash-up of animal and plant in the equations. Fungus, rather than plant, it seemed, but… that would explain the phosphine.

"Got it in one, Pol," Dinah said. "Mature form is reminiscent of a moth with too many legs maybe, but spends an extended time in the larval form. To spread them… I'll be shipping the egg sacs they produce in the fall with a care and feeding of manual," she said. "I'm also hoping, Pol, that you might take the new notes I made, and attempt it with at least two more species, just to get a broader range of coverage, given cyclical insect life styles?"

"Bay and I would be delighted to help with that!" Pol promised her.

"Amazing," Jim said softly, "utterly amazing. But wonderful news, even if it takes centuries to guard more than the centers of stakes."

"So it is," Abiaka agreed, dipping a deep bow to Dinah. "Glorious news, Dinah." 

She ducked her head, then shook it. "As hurt and as wrong as Tubberman was after the First Fall, he still deserves credit for the initial discovery and experiments. Knowing he had done it is the only reason I was able to back track it and prove the theory and the grubs sound."

"We'll annotate it that way, Dinah," Pol promised her.

"I… am floored. Won't be me or mine, but generations from now, with the land guarded, and the skies protected…" Wade shook his head. "There's no way we won't thrive as a planet, everyone. In just eleven years, we've come up with defenses to protect us from the threat we face! And even if it does take generations upon generations, it means Pern is ours truly!"

"And on that note," Vic said cheerfully, "it's just about noon and Pierre's student Leanna promised us a stellar lunch feast. Break for now, convene again at five local time to go over the next set of issues?" 

"Motion seconded," Caesar said even as he digested the idea of protected grasses. That wouldn't stop needing to drive the herds out of danger, but safe fodder... 

"For once, I agree with him," Gyorgy said, rising to leave.

+++++

Dinah had to wonder if they didn't have more home-grown experts than they thought, seeing the way the assembled crowds were treating this Conclave meeting. More ships than Jim's and Per's were at the dock and off the beaches, while the press of humans was thick enough to make her wonder if everyone in Southern who could come, had.

Of course, she'd encouraged some of her own advanced students to come with them, intending to help them negotiate new stake assignments to the others; maybe that explained some of these people. Even some of the dragons and their riders had come, she realized as she saw the gleaming shades of all five dragon-colors stretched on the beaches and out in the harbor, surfacing from dives with the dolphins. 

_Brileth?_ she called out towards the spans of wings, _are you here?_

 _We are,_ Brileth answered, translating her question to the more general impression of Roy and family. _Should I tell my rider you are asking?_

 _We're free for a few hours, so yes, please? We're still just outside the main stake building, if that will help him find us,_ Dinah answered, as she said aloud to Slade, "The boys are here, with Lian, Brileth says." 

"Trust you to find out already," Slade teased her. While both dragons had spoken to him, they didn't do it often, but neither one failed to answer Dinah. "So we'll wait… let me send Major to Vili, so Duncan knows Lian is here."

"Bet he already does," Dinah said sweetly, but she just watched Major launch from his person… irritated as all the lizards had been banned from the meeting… to do as told.

"He might," Slade agreed, glancing out over the crowd with a slow shake of his head. So blessed many people... they'd gotten spoiled by the schools.

It wasn't long at all before Roy and Dick came through the crowd -- their light-duty riding leathers and neck-slung goggles meaning they were given easy passage -- with Lian nowhere in sight. 

"Hmm, I'd say our son already acquired Lian," Dinah said sweetly, her hand twining in Slade's before they stepped out to where it was easier to be seen, drawing the boys' attention. 

"I never bet on sure things," Slade responded right back before raising his free hand to wave at Dick and Roy.

"Hey!" Dick called out at the wave, and he and Roy covered the distance in a fast hurry, reaching out for hugs from them both. "Good to see you both. You don't look like you want to knock people's heads together, so I'm guessing everything went well?" 

"Wonderfully," Dinah agreed, "though oh, they threw me for a loop for a moment! Come on, let's go find a table, the kids, and food -- in something like that order, even? -- and we can talk." 

"Kids shouldn't be hard; Kovarich is with them, and all five firelizards… the kids' and our two," Roy said with a grin. "I trust D, Di, but I wanted them able to squawk loud if Kovarich needed us."

"I'd say Major opted to stay with Trouble and Chakano then," Slade said when his shoulder remained clear. Hope gave a dismissive cheep to that nonsense; she'd see her fair when they came to her. It made Dinah giggle, but that did make more sense.

By the time they'd made it to one of the awning-covered tables, a group of kids was jogging up towards the same table, shepherded by the three adults of Hope's fair and a few others, Nerys' blue Triton among them. Duncan, Mick -- Dinah blinked at that; Kovarich, Lian, Nerys, a boy that looked to be the spitting image of Rene, and oh, Dick's Julienne! Her mother must be in with Wade from Sadrid! 

"Momma, there's lots of pastries and treats! It's better than the food we had at the Conference up North!" Duncan told his mother as he climbed up on the bench, his friends filing in around the adults. Julienne shyly tugged on Dick's wide belt, getting him to help her onto the bench beside him and Lian.

//Lots of homegrown experts in some things,// Dinah decided. "I'm glad you already sampled the sweets, D. Means you saved plenty of room for real food, right?"

Mick smirked; moms were all the same. He heard the same from Sorka and from his grand dam. He reached out to move a drinking cup closer to Kovarich, knowing his friend was thirsty and not wanting him to get upset by accidentally spilling it.

"Yes momma," Duncan said, grinning at her as he settled into a spot. "Oh! This's Dean Mallibeau. Dean, this's my mom." 

"Hi, ma'am," the boy said, smiling at her. "It's good to meet you." 

"And you, Dean," Dinah said, flashing him a bright smile, "and hello to the rest of you, too." 

"Hello Aunt Dinah!" mixed with a polite "Mrs. Wilson… Mr. Wilson," from the new boy to follow in with Mick and Duncan.

"I'll get our plates, Dinah," Slade said in her ear. "Including one for you and Kovarich," he told his son. "Dick…"

"Yeah, I can handle mine and Roy's plus the girls," Dick said as he got back up. 

"I'll bring you one," Mick told Dean, a look on his face that taunted Duncan over the fact he was going to go up in line and D wasn't. "And yours, Nerys. Balancing three's easy."

Dinah kept her mouth shut; the rivalry between the eldest of the dragon boys with her son was quiet, mostly amusing, and had not led to any true fights… yet.

Duncan seemed to be ignoring the look completely -- which was better than some times she could think of -- and Roy snorted at his partner. "Heck you're handling four, I saw that spread. You get you and Juli, I'll grab for me and Lian." 

"All right, all right," Dick said, rolling his eyes at Roy, and Duncan glanced at the table thoughtfully. She saw her son's fingers flick at his side, counting, and then he was talking. "Momma, we're short a couple of glasses, I can go grab them..." 

//Sneaky, son, but good.// "Thank you, Duncan, why don't you do that." She then looked at the three girls and Kovarich and Dean. She didn't have to see to know the look he was shooting at Mick matched the one he'd gotten earlier. "You five can tell me all about what is out in the crowd that was good to see," she offered the others, to keep them all at the table and not wandering around. A mental flick at Hope had the firelizards all leaving for the beaches and the dragons, so they wouldn't beg for food from children who needed to eat everything.

"Aunt Dinah, I saw pretty shells at one table," Lian started in, and the others added their own tales of things people were trading or giving away.

A different blue and a brown popped into view above the table while they were talking, then disappeared again, and Dean shook his head a little. "That's Papa's Rashi, he must be looking for me." 

"Yes, scamp," Rene's voice said from off to the side, and Dinah turned to smile at him. "Your son is charming, Rene." 

"And obviously has fine taste in companions," Rene said, smiling at her. "Do you want to stay with the rest of these young people, Dean?" 

"Yes please, papa!" 

"He's more than welcome to," Dinah said. "Duncan does enjoy having people around him closer to his age." And given that most of her students were still single and focused on their careers, there weren't all that many kids actually on Omaha. 

"I believe it will be fine then," Rene said warmly. "Also, Dinah… thank you for the news you brought."

She flushed, shaking her head, even as he moved on. Yes, it was important, Dinah knew, but would take lifetimes to complete.

"Aunt Dinah?" Lian asked, watching her face. 

"Yes sweetie?" Dinah focused back on the children. "I hope the boys brings us back some of the sweets too!" she admitted to divert the girl from asking why she'd seemed upset. Today had been good, and would stay so.

+++++


End file.
